Which would leave her and Ed alone in the house.
Her cheeks warmed as she remembered last night. Ed was right to stop when they did. She had desperately wanted to continue exploring the heavy neediness inside her, but after he’d stood, and the rug had shifted, she’d realised they would have got sand in unmentionable places.
Plus they had no contraception.
She glanced over at him sleeping in the bed next to hers. When they’d arrived back, she’d wanted to keep exploring those amazing feelings, but his family slept in the next room. They had taken her in, and she didn’t want to do anything they might not approve of. Her mother’s voice whispered in her ear that it wasn’t appropriate. She still believed a woman had to be a virgin when she married. But if sex made Tess feel as good as Ed had last night, she didn’t want to wait.
But thoughts of her mother reminded her she hadn’t called them yesterday like she normally would. She stared at the ceiling. The moment she called them it would shatter this peace she’d found at the Ridge with Ed. Yesterday had been a dream and she didn’t want it to end.
Was it wrong of her to want to hang on to it?
What would Da Lim do?
She wouldn’t give in to her parents’ expectations, but Tess had discovered the letters Da had written to them regularly to reassure them she was safe.
So she really had to call her parents.
She closed her eyes.
One more day. She’d give herself today in case Dot contacted them with news, and then she’d call. Joy would have told them she was safe, so there was no rush.
The decision sat a little uneasy on her, but this was the first time she had done something for herself since she arrived in Australia. She deserved it.
The light outside grew brighter, and a car started, and then the engine faded as it drove away. Ed’s fringe hung over his face, obscuring part of it, and she longed to brush it out of the way.
How would he react if she did that? If she climbed into his bed with him?
No. He could hardly consent to it if he was asleep.
So she contented herself with studying the scattering of freckles across his nose, only faintly visible as the sun rose higher in the sky outside. How much longer would he sleep?
More voices carried down the corridor, and she recognised Dobby’s booming tone. Damn. She’d forgotten about them.
She shifted, her bladder telling her it was time to get up. In the bathroom, she tidied her hair and then stopped back in the bedroom to check if Ed was awake.
He didn’t stir.
She smiled. Darcy had said he wasn’t a morning person.
Letting him sleep, she moved down the corridor, only slightly nervous about walking into a kitchen full of men.
Sam, Dobby and Heath sat at one end of the table, each nursing a mug of coffee, but all eyes focused on her the moment she stepped into view. Alert.
Instead of making her uncomfortable, it made her feel safe. No one would sneak up with them around.
“Morning,” she said.
“Morning,” they chorused.
“You and Ed have fun stargazing?” Heath asked, and the others smirked.
Her cheeks heated, and she hurried over to the bench to put the kettle on. “Yes, thank you.” They couldn’t possibly know what she and Ed had done. “What are you planning to do today?”
“Darcy’s putting us to work,” Sam said. “They’re tagging the new lambs.” He shrugged. “I guess we’re doing grunt work.”
“Lambs?” She hadn’t seen lambs before.
“Yeah. Matt and Darcy are rounding them up now.”
